Thursday morning earthquake shakes up south-central Kansas

An early morning earthquake in northwest Oklahoma was so strong it was felt in 10 states – and even showed up on radar.

The quake, which occurred at 1:42 a.m., measured 4.7 and was centered 8 miles southwest of Cherokee, Okla., – or about 98 miles southwest of Wichita. The quake was more than three miles deep.

The shaking was strong enough to jolt many Wichita residents out of bed and could be felt as far away as New Underwood, S.D., and Tucson according to reports sent to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Residents all over Kansas reported feeling the earthquake. Thousands of people reported it to the U.S. Geological Survey, and it was strong enough to trigger an alarm at the National Weather Service in Wichita.

“It kicked our radar into precip mode,” said Jaclyn Ritzman, a meteorologist with the agency. “We got an alert” about a developing storm.

“It was like, ‘What’s going on? There’s no storms going on.’ ”

A large flock of birds took to the sky near Burrton in Reno County at the same time when the earthquake struck, fooling the radar.

“You could see them on radar taking off,” Ritzman said. “They were like, ‘Whoa, what just happened? We’ve gotta get out of here!’ ”

A similar phenomenon happened with a radar in Oklahoma, Ritzman said.

More than 4,400 reported it to the U.S. Geological Survey. The list includes reports from Colorado, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, Illinois and Arkansas. If you felt it, you can report it on this Geological Survey’s page.

There have been two aftershocks in the same area – a 3.1 at 3:46 a.m. and a 3.7 just after 6 a.m.

Many people took to social media right after the initial earthquake struck:

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 6:01 AM with the headline "Thursday morning earthquake shakes up south-central Kansas."